N/A New smart phone

markb5900

markb5900

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Mark B
For reasons I won't go into great detail on, lets just say the washing machine and my sons phone got to know each other real well, I am going to be getting myself a new phone. He can have my old one, rank does have SOME benefits in my house. LOL

I am looking to get a smart phone I guess. Want the PDA type functions and a phone all in one with EASE of entering information. For me to send a one line text message is a 30 minute ordeal on a "regular" phone.

Will probably use it to get and send email also.
Would like to have at least decent battery life. I really don't talk much on my razor that I have now and the battery can go 3 or 4 days before I need to charge it normally. I assume that I won't get that kind of life out of something I am using for email also, but don't want to be charging it every three hours either (as I read on some reviews).

Please let me know what you folks have, likes and dislikes.

Thanks

Mark B
 
I don't know your carrier, Mark, but I have to recommend the Blackberry Curve series. Such a great phone (I was reluctant until I got one myself). Hands down, the best PDA/Smartphone on the market.

The Q would be decent, but running Windows Mobile comes with its issues (at least, everyone I've ever used has).
 
OH, forgot that didn't I.
I am with AT&T
 
markb5900 said:
OH, forgot that didn't I.
I am with AT&T
Click to expand...
I am using the Motorola Q9 right now. I know AT&T offers that model. My service in on T-Mobile and I am happy with the service and functionality. The Q runs on Windoze Mobile which is as stable as any other Windoze product.

One advantage that Windows has over Blackberry's is the active synch for your outlook. With the Blackberry all of your email has to be carried through their servers and if RIM goes off line, which they have, you no longer have email. The other smart phones do not have this problem.

The new iPhone also support active synch which has made many a corporate IT groups happy.

I would spend some time playing with all of them.
 
markb5900 said:
I am with AT&T
Click to expand...
So am I and I've been thinking about the iPhone. It would come in handy when I visit my mom who has no internet (except dial-up) but her area definitely has 3G coverage. I'm also a bit of a gadget nut. I've somehow accumulated 4 computers, a Palm, an iPod... :rolleyes:
 
markb5900 said:
OH, forgot that didn't I.
I am with AT&T
Click to expand...

AT&T has some awesome phones. If you're considering Windows Mobile, the Q9 is awesome (As Scott says), but, don't forget the HTC Tilt (TyTN II). That is one badass phone, and its quick and stable.

You've also got the Blackberry 8310, an awesome data device, for sure, and probably the Blackberry Bold too.

Scott's right, the Blackberry Infrastructure has had some issues lately, but honestly, they have been far and few between (like an hour or 2 per month tops), and the last one for T-Mobile was T-Mobile's fault because we were upgrading to the new version of Blackberry Internet Service. (I assume AT&T and Sprint had similar issues at some time recently).

But, Windows Mobile has one major flaw (I was so happy with my phone that I neglected to notice it for so long). When they run short on memory, they run SLOOOOOOOOOW, and they freeze a lot. Keep all data hogging files on an SD card and you're golden. Store them on phone memory and you get hosed.

The Blackberry handles low memory in its own irritating way: It deletes your call logs and messages, without warning.

Pick your poison. I have no experience with the Palms, but they seemed cool before they went under.
 
Next stupid question.
Will AT&T let you "borrow" phones for a day or two to let you try them out?
I will call them tomorrow and ask, but their customer service is either GREAT or TOTALLY BAD depending on who you get.

Thanks
Mark B
 
markb5900 said:
Next stupid question.
Will AT&T let you "borrow" phones for a day or two to let you try them out?
I will call them tomorrow and ask, but their customer service is either GREAT or TOTALLY BAD depending on who you get.

Thanks
Mark B
Click to expand...

No clue if they will, but if they won't, go to a store, and check out the demo models (assuming you don't go to a ghetto store, they should have real ones out to play with). See if they'll let you pop your sim card in it, and have a blast. You can get a decent feel for a phone that way.

There's also the buyer's remorse policy, but I wouldn't get into abusing that until you're serious about it being a phone you might want to keep.
 
SkyHog said:
AT&T has some awesome phones. If you're considering Windows Mobile, the Q9 is awesome (As Scott says), but, don't forget the HTC Tilt (TyTN II). That is one badass phone, and its quick and stable.
Click to expand...

I have the Tilt with AT&T and I love it. It IS a battery hog though if you don't disable the stuff you don't use all the time (like the GPS). I can get a full day out of it, but I use it a lot.

I don't think AT&T will let you borrow the phones..it was hard enough to talk them in to breaking out a Tilt and an iPhone in the store side by side for me to compare.
 
KennyFlys said:
When I was still doing courier work, the phones they used for dispatching had GPS. Early on, I'd turn it off but they didn't know that. Finally, it became a necessary evil to get work.

Then, it was so messed up, they would think I was in one area and I was actually far away. One particular day, they give me a call in the west Alpharetta area. I was at least fifteen miles away in Norcross. And, it was rush hour. This was when fuel was still just above two bucks a gallon. I don't think so!

Given that experience, I'm not so convinced the cell phone GPS units are all that reliable. The battery on the phone was a joke considering the GPS drain as well as the phone sending a location update every five minutes. These were Motorolas through Nextel, by the way.
Click to expand...

I have a Nuvi 350 that I use if I need to find some place. I rarely use the phone GPS. I can think of only twice, and I used it with Google maps to find a place to eat when I was out with friends and not in my car. I use the data services a lot though, and that is rough on battery life.
 
I ended up getting the Moto Q9. Seems to be a nice phone and I like it so far.
One problem I have encountered is trying to find Flash for it. Have done several google searchs etc.. and can't seem to find it for this phone. It appears that Adobe does not have something for WM6 for phones. Does anyone know of where it can be found or a "work around" for this?

Thanks
Mark B
 
What do you mean by 'flash'?

Are you talking about the extra memory card or flash player?

If it is the later I have not found one either.
 
KennyFlys said:
Given that experience, I'm not so convinced the cell phone GPS units are all that reliable. The battery on the phone was a joke considering the GPS drain as well as the phone sending a location update every five minutes. These were Motorolas through Nextel, by the way.
Click to expand...
Samsung Instinct on Sprint has a killer GPS. I use it far more than I thought I would. Instinct in general is a killer phone. I love it.
 
markb5900 said:
Next stupid question.
Will AT&T let you "borrow" phones for a day or two to let you try them out?
I will call them tomorrow and ask, but their customer service is either GREAT or TOTALLY BAD depending on who you get.
Click to expand...

There's a 30 day return policy.

DO NOT do what I did and just use the convenient no trace return box. Send it with tracking to be sure to record the tracking number on the box.
 
SkyHog said:
...
Pick your poison. I have no experience with the Palms, but they seemed cool before they went under.
Click to expand...


"Went under?"

They sure keep on sending me promos for accessories, and claim to be releasing new phones.

I like my Treo 680, in any event, and I love Laurie Davis' CoPilot software on it.

Tell all!
 
SCCutler said:
"Went under?"

They sure keep on sending me promos for accessories, and claim to be releasing new phones.

I like my Treo 680, in any event, and I love Laurie Davis' CoPilot software on it.

Tell all!
Click to expand...

Hmm, I seemed to recall that Palm went out of business back in January, but I guess I misread, and saw that instead they shut down all of their retail stores.

They haven't closed yet, but I suspect they won't be around much longer, unfortunately. I love the Palm smart phones.
 
SkyHog said:
Hmm, I seemed to recall that Palm went out of business back in January, but I guess I misread, and saw that instead they shut down all of their retail stores.

They haven't closed yet, but I suspect they won't be around much longer, unfortunately. I love the Palm smart phones.
Click to expand...


Well, mine works well (except for the occasional spurious reboot, but as a Windows user, I am used to that anyway).
 
SkyHog said:
Hmm, I seemed to recall that Palm went out of business back in January, but I guess I misread, and saw that instead they shut down all of their retail stores.

They haven't closed yet, but I suspect they won't be around much longer, unfortunately. I love the Palm smart phones.
Click to expand...

There are 3(?) Palms - PalmOne (Hardware. Keep in mind they sell Palm phones that run Windows Mobile vs. Palm OS), one that only develops PalmOS (a one-stop going out of business spinoff) and another for apps, I think.
 
mikea said:
There are 3(?) Palms - PalmOne (Hardware. Keep in mind they sell Palm phones that run Windows Mobile vs. Palm OS), one that only develops PalmOS (a one-stop going out of business spinoff) and another for apps, I think.
Click to expand...

PalmOne is still selling phones with both OSs, Mike. I am clinging to my Palm-OS 680, because the Palm synch is a lot better than the Windows Mobile one (at least, with our in-office software) and (like I mentioned above) it runs CoPilot.
 
SCCutler said:
PalmOne is still selling phones with both OSs, Mike. I am clinging to my Palm-OS 680, because the Palm synch is a lot better than the Windows Mobile one (at least, with our in-office software) and (like I mentioned above) it runs CoPilot.
Click to expand...

Yeah. I didn't mean they stopped selling PalmOS PDAs and phones, just that they were spun off to make them independent from the PalmOS part.
 
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